SQLU HA/DR Week – Database Mirroring Performance Counters Database mirroring debuted in SQL Server 2005 and had eleven performance counters for monitoring mirroring. There were ten new performance counters released with SQL Server 2008. We now have twenty-one performance counters to use for monitoring database mirroring. A list with a brief description of each can be found in Books Online or online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189931.aspx. Many people find themselves without a clear understanding of what the counters mean and how to

SQLU VLDB Week – Archiving and Purging Data Welcome back for the final day of VLDB week at SQL University. Today, we will talk about one of the big challenges that all administrators must eventually tackle when working with a VLDB: archiving and purging data. This particular problem has a very simple solution; however, if you can’t take the easy way out, there are other things you can do. Before we go any further, here is a recap of VLDB

SQLU VLDB Week – Integrity Checks Welcome back to day four of VLDB week at SQL University. Today, we will talk about running integrity checks – a.k.a. DBCC CHECKDB. In factuality, there are serveral DBCC CHECK commands for checking database integrity, not just CHECKDB. CHECKDB is the main function, the grandaddy of all DBCC CHECK commands. It is the one that performs the full gamut of integrity checks on a database. Almost everything I know about CHECKDB I learned from

SQLU VLDB Week – Backups It’s day three of VLDB week at SQL University. Today’s lesson is on Backups. Very large databases have very large full backups. Very large backups have certain inherent problems. Disk space, disk performance, log file management, and time to complete a full backup all challenges faced with backing up a very large database. I’m going to give you some tips for dealing with very large backups and help you speed up the back up process.

SQLU VLDB Week – Index Maintenance Welcome back for another exciting session on working with VLDBs, or Very Large DataBases. Today is day 2 of VLDBweek, and we are going to dive into the biggest challenge, as voted on by the people, with working with VLDBs: Index Maintenance <cue spooky music>. The reason index maintenace is challenging is pretty obvious. Big tables have big indexes. Big indexes require more time and use more resources to rebuild or reorganize. There are

SQLU VLDB Week – Intro to VLDBs, part 2 Welcome to another exciting week SQL University postings. This week, we will be talking about working with VLDBs, or Very Large DataBases. Opinions vary greatly on what constitutes a VLDB and how to work with them. Last month, I posted some polls to get feedback from the community on VLDBs. Let’s take a look at those results first. What is the smallest database that qualifies as a VLDB? The minimum size

SQLU VLDB Week – Intro to VLDBs Welcome to another exciting week SQL University postings. The week of April 11, we will be talking about working with VLDBs, or Very Large DataBases. If you ask a hundred people to define what constitutes a very large database and what it is like working with one, you would probably get at least fifty different answers. One sentiment that I’ve heard time and time again is that working with very large databases is

SQLU DBA Week – Be an Efficient DBA Welcome back for another day of Administration Week 1 for SQL University. This is day four, and I want to focus in on a term that I hear quite a bit, lazy dba. DBAs are anything but lazy, but the term seems to have come about by the way that we are always lookign for the simplest and quickest way to do something. That’s not being lazy, that’s being efficient. Don’t be

SQLU DBA Week – Recovering Lost Data Welcome to day two of Administration Week 1 for SQL University. I’m sharing this week with Mike Walsh (blog|@mike_walsh). The goal is to bring you a varying approach to administration and delve into topics to different levels. If you have not already done so, be sure to check out Mike’s post for day 1: SQLU DBA Week – You Can Restore It! (right?). Mike took a look at building a restore strategy to

Advanced Troubleshooting Week at SQL University, Lesson 3 Welcome back to Advanced Troubleshooting Week at SQL University. I’m your guest professor for this course and today I will once again be talking about Advanced Troubleshooting. Nargles … dispatched. Grindylows … defeated. Boggarts … well, we’ll see. We’ll see. With a little guidance, I think everyone will do just fine.Boggarts are a particularly nasty breed of creature. They represent what we fear the most. For the average DBA, what we fear